Hard to find someone who’s goal in the military is to be a cook. And we don’t want to hurt their feelings by making them cook unless they want to.
When I worked at the Eglin AFB mess hall one summer 30-some years ago most of the staff were contracted. Only a handful of uniformed staff involved. My summer job was filling in for the contracted staff as they were taking their vacations.
I can’t speak for other than Navy, however on Submarines, the Cook was very well respected and considered by the crew. They busted their butts to put good food on the plate, and got it done, and all of ‘em were volunteers.
I was thinking that a few weeks ago when watching a tour of the submarine USS Indiana on YouTube. They had two cooks on duty serving the guests. But everyone has to eat. Serving the mess has a long tradition in every navy, and those boys have to put up with the same hardships as the rest of the crew. Wear the dolphins proudly!
Silly me. I thought most of these DFACs were run by contractors. If they are using GIs to run them, is that because they cut funding for the contractors so more money could be sent to Ukraine?